Huawei Teases 6.1-Inch 'Ascent Mate' Smartphone

You knew this was coming. Not only are the various mobile manufacturers all trying to beat each other out on their various smartphones' features and capabilities, but it looks like they're going to try to one-up each other on size, too.

At least, that's what we're led to believe by smartphone manufacturer Huawei's apparent leak of its 6.1-inch "Ascend Mate," a smartphone that would likely be larger than any pants pocket you could think to store it in.

The video that shows off this monstrous smartphone was first reported by Engadget and, unfortunately, it doesn't hint at much else about what's inside the smartphone/tablet.

The 1080p-friendly device (sporting 361 pixels per inch on its screen) has been rumored to sport a quad-core, 1.8-GHz HiSilicon K3V3 CPU and 2GB of memory. Additionally, it's been suggested that a whopping 4,000 mAh battery will power the device. It'll be interesting to see just what kind of uptime Huawei will be able to deliver given the trade off between the phone's massive screen size and equally massive battery.

Just to put the Ascend Mate in perspective, its alleged screen size is going to be all of half an inch larger than Samsung's Galaxy Note II, a device that PCMag mobile analyst Jamie Lendino already described as being a little bit troublesome to use one-handed.

However, don't expect that Samsung is just going to sit back and let someone else usurp its claim to the, "Is it a smartphone? Is it a tablet?" title. The latest rumors suggest that Samsung is allegedly working on a follow-up to the Galaxy Note II, which will come in at an eye-opening screen size of 6.3 inches  all of 0.2 inches greater than the size of the Huawei's Ascend Mate.

While the final specifications of Huawei's smartphone have yet to be announced, the smartphone is expected to make its official appearance at January's Consumer Electronics Show. We somehow doubt you'd be able to miss this large device if even if you tried.

David Murphy got his first real taste of technology journalism when he arrived at PC Magazine as an intern in 2005. A three-month stint turned to six months, six months turned to occasional freelance assignments, and he has since rejoined his tech-loving, mostly New York-based friends as one of PCMag.com's news contributors.
His rise to (self-described) fame in the world of tech journalism began during his stint an associate editor at Maximum PC, where his love of cardboard-based PC construction and meetings put him in charge...
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